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Program membership marks another move down evolutionary path for Sematech |
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Mar 21, 2007 at 10:22 AM |
Sematech has come a long way from its beginnings as an industry-government consortium established to help American-based chipmakers compete more effectively in the global semiconductor markets.
The gradual elimination of federal monies in the 1990s marked one critical turning point in the organization's development, followed by the decision to denationalize the membership and open the rolls to chipmakers from Europe and Asia (around the time the Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors dropped the "N" for "National" in favor of the "I" for "International").
More recently, it has spun off the Advanced Technology Development Facility (ATDF) as an R&D foundry; established a productivity and manufacturing practices subsidiary, the International Sematech Manufacturing Initiative (ISMI); and helped create the Advanced Materials Research Center (AMRC) with several Texas universities. Throw in the establishment of Sematech North at Albany Nanotech, several workforce development programs, and its "Knowledge Series" of technical conferences and symposia, and it's clear that the consortium has evolved considerably from its original form and mission, although its mantra of precompetitive cooperation has not wavered.
The latest announcement from Sematech marks yet another step in its ongoing development. The consortium has begun offering what it calls "program memberships" in its deep through-silicon vias-based 3-D interconnect program to players throughout the chipmaking foodchain, from chipmakers to front- and back-end tool and materials suppliers.
"3-D offers a way to achieve high density and performance while also being able to integrate non-CMOS products with CMOS," said Sitaram Akalgud, director of the 3-D program, in the press release. "Realizing its full potential requires the participation of several areas of the industry, including design, test, materials, front-end wafer processing, and back-end assembly. As a result, we are taking an interdisciplinary approach, and looking for inputs from as many participants as possible.â€
Sematech says that 3-D will be the first of several programs seeking limited members. Although some critics might lambaste this approach as yet another desperate attempt by a financially strapped consortium to create more revenue streams, such a cynical reponse ignores Sematech's successful reinvention of itself in the new millennium.
Its work in helping harness the industry's collaborative energies in pushing immersion lithography onto the fab floor in a matter of a few years merits serious kudos. ISMI has taken the less-than-sexy area of manufacturing practices and helped make it more of a science, increasing productivity---and margins---at its member companies in the process. In areas such as high-k/metal gates, advanced metrology, the 300-mm Prime initiative, and EUVL, Sematech has been and will continue to be essential to the industry's efforts.
Since I started covering the semiconductor industry within months of Sematech's creation in 1987, we have a long and concurrent history. Although I don't have quantitative proof, I think that Microcontamination and then MICRO published at least as many technical articles from Sematech as any other trade publication over the years, starting with the groundbreaking cost of ownership series in the early '90s. I have been a supporter of the consortium since the git-go, even if I have heard occasional horror stories of frustration and ineptitude from assignees and direct hires over the years, and I did think that Sematech should have cut its government funding and internationalized itself sooner than it actually did.
But that's old news. The new, improved Sematech represents a model for technology consortiums, one that balances the needs and desires of its member companies and its own business imperative to generate income with a broad commitment to helping the chipmaking community deal with the daunting challenges it faces as it draws inexorably closer to the dawn of the post-CMOS era. The program membership plan marks another positive step in Sematech's evolutionary path.
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